Apology Gone Wrong

A white male pastor of a predominantly white church made a mistake and posted something inappropriate on the church sign, was called out for it, and removed the message. In an effort to apologize, he wrote the following on Facebook (I deleted the name of the church, because that’s not important):

So, I’m the lead pastor at XXX Church, and I posted the sign that reads “Our new youth pastor puts the stud in bible study…”

At the outset let me say : I’m sorry.When I posted the sign I only saw it as a humorous play on words and a way to prank our new youth pastor because he always puts creepy clowns in my office. At no time did I ever think about the associations with horse breeding or sexual undertones. That is certainly not my worldview, my theology, or my ministry practice. I am sorry.I can see that my actions here offended some of you. I’m sure that there are a number of people who have driven by who have been offended and not had an outlet for that frustration. For that, and the damage that does to the gospel of Christ, I am sorry. I am sorry for the offense I have given, and ask your forgiveness.I hope that you hear my heart in those words, that I am being completely genuine.The sign will be changed as soon as I drive over to the church. Tonight. Done.Can I ask, on the other hand – why did this need to become a public Facebook feud? Many of you on here I know, are friends of mine. Maybe you didn’t know that I was the pastor who made the sign – but still. A lot of you went straight to questioning most things about me, even putting me in parallel with Trump talking about women in disgusting and derogatory ways. It is weird to me, because people that I actually know and have offended and who would have cause to be angry with me have never said such things about me. It is strange that a group of Facebook folks drawn together by the gospel, and a desire for equality for women in the church and world, most of whom I don’t know, would say such horrible things about someone they don’t know, who happened to make a mistake.For the record, a simple message to me, phone call to my office, or any number of simple conflict resolution tools could have sufficed. In a message or phone call, I could have apologized, removed the sign, and we could have moved on.I guess I just don’t understand the desire to publicly shame people on social media. It is an incredibly strange thing to me. My assumption about you all is that we are travelers together with Christ in faith. I hope we can all treat one another, as Paul exhorts the Philippians, to consider each other as greater than ourselves. But, please. Hear me loud and clear my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I am sorry.

What he said was much more volatile than what he initially posted on the sign. Thoughts?